Marin Voice: A greener approach to planning

I HAVE LIVED IN MARIN virtually my entire life. I know the history of this county, respect its core conservationist and community values, and I bring that knowledge and those core values to my decision making as county supervisor.

I am a believer in planning — specifically land-use planning — because it is the primary tool used to implement and assure that a community's values are embedded in the blue print for future development.

Those of us who live in Marin are beneficiaries of prospective land-use planning and development decisions made back in the 1970s which had the specific intention to prevent sprawl, target growth, preserve our agricultural lands and protect our open space.

Plan Bay Area is a regional effort to apply similar values and achieve similar objectives throughout the Bay Area with the added goal and responsibility of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. It also fulfills a statutory requirement (SB375 adopted in 2008) which requires the Association of Bay Area Governments and Metropolitan Transportation Commission to develop and adopt an integrated transportation and housing plan for the Metropolitan Bay Area region of which Marin County is a part.

Plan Bay Area is not a mandate to build housing. It does not erode, diminish or supersede local control, local planning or local decision-making authority for this county or any other in the region. The County of Marin as well as each of our cities and towns have general plans in place that prescribe land use and zoning. Changes to those general plans can only be made by the local governing authority (the Board of Supervisors or city council) not by ABAG or MTC or other regional agencies.

Marin County and the entire Bay Area region stand to benefit from planning that seeks to encourage all counties (and jurisdictions within them) to plan for future growth/development with foresight that reduces sprawl, protects our agricultural lands and open space, links future job growth with housing and transit, and as a result reduces vehicle miles traveled and green house gas emissions.

That said, this first edition of Plan Bay Area is far from perfect — for example:

 The plan does not identify or address how communities will fund the expansion of public infrastructure necessary to accommodate projected growth, should it occur;

 The plan does not address water resources and whether there is adequate supply to support projected future growth;

 The plan needs to do a better job addressing and respecting differences in size, density, and community character of cities throughout the Bay Area;

 Neither Plan Bay Area nor its DEIR come close to adequately addressing or accounting for sea-level rise, acknowledging the need for climate adaptation strategies, as well as identifying the funding mechanisms necessary to support implementation;

 The plan does not recognize or account for local projects or programs that reduce greenhouse gas emissions such as Marin Clean Energy.

But perhaps the biggest problem of all, has been the process in which Plan Bay Area was developed. Though years in the making, the general public did not become engaged or involved until the end and by then most major policy decisions informing the plan had been decided.

Plan Bay Area will be updated on a four-year cycle. The beginning of that update should begin the day after it is adopted.

Authentic engagement and involvement by local delegates, planners and the public early on in the revision cycle will make for a process that builds confidence, and results in a better plan and planning tool for Marin County and the greater Bay Area.

Marin Supervisor Katie Rice of San Anselmo is the county's representative to the Association of Bay Area Governments.